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News Tip: Twitter Learns From Facebook's Mistakes in IPO Process

Twitter will become a public company when the social media giant holds its public offering Thursday.Dorie ClarkAdjunct professor of business administration, Duke University's Fuqua School of Businessdorie@dorieclark.comhttp://dorieclark.com/about/Clark is an expert on branding and marketing strategy. Quote:"Twitter's IPO process has been handled incredibly well so far. Facebook took a PR and financial beating when its IPO disappointed last year. Twitter has been able to learn from Facebook's mistakes and has been extremely cautious as its leaders make their pitch to investors. "Meanwhile, Twitter's strategy and positioning have been extremely savvy. A recent study by Piper Jaffray found that Twitter has overtaken Facebook as teens' preferred social channel, and it's becoming the go-to source for breaking news, whether it's political, i.e. Arab Spring, or entertainment, such as the Grammys, the Oscars or the Super Bowl. "The main obstacle for Twitter will be its growth rate. The company's recent user growth has slowed, and it has had to scale back its early hopes of growing to 400 million users this year. "A slowing user growth rate isn't a big deal for a private company that can -- and sometimes should -- focus on other metrics, such as increasing revenue. But post-IPO, investors will demand growth across the board, and may be unforgiving if they fall short."                                    _        _        _        _Duke experts on a variety of other topics can be found at http://newsoffice.duke.edu/resources-media/faculty-experts.